SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC HOUSING by Foreign Office Architects
by Jorge Chapa
Faced with a shortage of public housing, the City of Madrid commissioned Foreign Office Architects to create a sustainable multi-unit residential alternative for its new public housing development at Carabanchel. Simply known as Carabanchel 16, this building shows how you can is a simple housing design transformed into a beautiful canvas of light and shadow using the simplest tool in an architect’s arsenal: shading devices.
For most cities, the need to create affordable housing would mean erecting mass quantities of mediocre housing stock of without much regard to the real needs of the occupants or the environment. Not so for Madrid, which commissioned its public-sector works office, EMVS, to work with some of the best architects in the world to create what can only be described as an open gallery of social architecture.
The design by FOA’s Alejandro Zaera Polo is a simple 88-unit building with units of different types and sizes. The building is organized around the north-south axis, meaning that it faces the harsh east-west sun for most of the day. To help alleviate the heat gain from the sun, the architects have surrounded the units with a 1.5 metre terrace enclosed with bamboo louvres. The bamboo is mounted on folding frames which can be opened whenever the occupants want. The screens while helping diminish the solar gain to the units, while turning the facade into an always changing kaleidoscope of shadow and light.
The ever-changing facade sits a top its parking areas. In order to conceal them, the team at FOA decided to cover it entirely with grass, giving the building a touch of color without distracting from the rest of the facade. Due to the design of the building, the units have access to good cross-ventilation as every units has been designed with access to both the east and west sides of the building.
FOA’s design shows what a bit of inspiration and thought can do to what is most often a neglected area in a city development. With just a little bit of creativity they have turned what could have been a simple public housing building into an inspired an playful development with plenty of character. The building is expected to be finished this year.
+ Foreign Office Architects
+ Screen Stars @ RIBA Journal
+ Carabanchel 16 Gallery @ Nuevos Vecinos
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This is beautiful, although almost a direct (but wooden) copy of Herzog and De Meuron’s housing at Rue des Suisses in Paris. In fact I used a similar idea about a year ago for a design project, it creates a beautiful and dynamic facade really easily. Plus it’s environmentally responsive whilst keeping control in the occupants’ hands…